Grace Zumwinkle scored both goals to lead the No. 2 University of Minnesota women’s hockey team to a 2-1 come-from-behind win over visiting St. Cloud State at Ridder Arena on Thursday afternoon.
Minnesota (6-1-0, 6-1-0 WCHA) extended its current winning streak over the Huskies to 15 games but had to rally from a one-goal deficit to get there. St. Cloud State (2-5-0, 2-5-0 WCHA) got on the board first when Olivia Cvar scored on the power play — the first power-play goal allowed by the Maroon & Gold this season — at 18:21 of the second period.
Zumwinkle responded with a pair of third-period goals, marking her second two-goal game of the season. She solved SCSU netminder Emma Polusny on an unassisted tally at the 1:41 mark of the final stanza before burying a feed from Anne Cherkowski for the game-winner with 6:35 remaining in the game.
Lauren Bench made 24 saves while Polusny had 40 for the Huskies as Minnesota had the advantage in shots on goal at 42-25.
Notable
Thursday’s game marked the 100th meeting in program history between Minnesota and St. Cloud State as the Gophers improved to 94-3-3 all-time against the Huskies in a series dating back to November 1997. The Gophers are 45-0-2 against the Huskies at Ridder Arena, and Minnesota has now won 15-straight games over SCSU.
Quotable
“It was another good, tough WCHA hockey game, everything that we expected,” head coach Brad Frost said. “St. Cloud State continues to get better and better. Their goaltender was really good here tonight, and they generated a number of quality chances. I’m proud of our team. Even though we got down a goal there, we still felt like we were playing well. We were generating, we were pressuring the puck, and it was great there to have Zummy score pretty quickly into the third and and then end it there. Overall it was a good game. We’re happy with the three points, and we know it will be a great battle here as we continue to go into the weekend.”
Up Next
The Gophers and Huskies face off in a home-and-home series this weekend. Puck drop is at 4:07 p.m. CT Saturday at Ridder Arena before the teams conclude the three-game week at 3:07 p.m. CT Sunday at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minn.
(info and photo courtesy of Gopher Sports)